by Pat Price
"Man, that was probably the worse beating I’ve ever taken. I thought you would never get here. I think they cracked a couple of my ribs." He coughed and the pain showed through on his face. "Help me up so we can get out of here," he said looking up at me and raising his right arm.
I pulled Jimmy to his feet. I knew he was hurting because he has an abnormally high tolerance to pain and he was showing the effects of the beating during the day he had taken while I was on my way to the cave.
"Can you walk?" I asked. I had his left arm over my right shoulder and was holding his left wrist with my left hand so my right shooting hand was free. I wasn't going to be taking any trophies while I supported Jimmy but I wasn't going to leave him inside the cave either.
"I can make it with a little help," he said between clinched teeth. He took a ragged breath and let it out. "What time is it?" he asked.
"About a quarter to six,” I said, looking at my watch.
"Morning or night?"
"Evening," I said looking around the room.
"Those are the weapons," Jimmy said when he saw me looking at two objects shaped like welding tanks laying on carriages mounted on low wagons. Each wagon was about three feet wide and four feet long with pneumatic tires about 12 inches in diameter. The front of each wagon looked like a child's wagon with a handle for pulling. Each tank was about a foot in diameter and four feet long with some type of control box fastened to its side near one end. A bundle of wires with a connector at each end joined the box to its tank. The control boxes each had two liquid crystal displays on the face and several indicator lights, all of which were blank. Each of the boxes also had a single key switch with the keys inserted into them. It appeared I caught Olson by surprise before the weapons were armed.
"I have an idea," I said to Jimmy. "You ride on one of the wagons with the bomb and I'll pull you and it to the entrance of the cave."
"You sure you want to do that?" he asked.
"I sure as hell don't want to leave these lying around while we go get the Calvary," I said while I pulled, carried, and dragged him over to the nearest wagon. Jimmy leaned over the wagon and held onto the tank with both hands then slid his right leg over the top. He settled down on top of the bomb and let out a sigh. I pulled the keys out of the control boxes on each bomb and tossed them on top of a cabinet. I figured that no one would think of looking for them there.
"Ok Kemo Sabe, let's get'um up." His teeth were clinched and I knew he would be in real trouble if I didn't get him some help pretty soon. I took the handle and started pulling. The weight from the bomb had to be somewhere around 400 to 500 pounds. Coupled with Jimmy's 190 pounds that made quite a load. I leaned forward and the cart slowly followed along behind me. If I had been wearing leather soled boots I never would have gotten the load going. A strong back coupled with good bearings and big wheels works every time. I had just less than 100 yards to the entrance of the mine before the real task of getting to my truck or finding another one began.
I turned left out of the machine shop room and proceeded down the corridor. About 100 feet later I came to the first turn. I stopped the cart and took up my shooting stance and looked around the corner. With the exception of the guard I had popped on the way in, the hallway was clear. I pulled the cart behind me and we continued on, ignoring the unfired MP-5 machine pistol still slung around the guard's neck. I repeated the same procedure three more times before we reached the entrance of the cave. The two dead guards with their automatic weapons were still lying where they fell.
"How many people did you kill anyway?" Jimmy said, coughing.
"Including your buddy Olson?"
"Yeah, including him," Jimmy wheezed.
"Four," was all I said. I moved forward, carefully looking out at the area outside of the mouth of the cave. It was hard to see anything because my eyes were now used to the light just as the guards were before I took them down. The cave was situated such that it had a clear field of fire. It was doubtful anyone could get a shot off from above the cave, seeing as how the entrance was further back than the rim of the canyon wall it was located under. My truck being a long ways off in another canyon gave me concern that Jimmy would not remain conscious if I left him by himself. If he was alone there was no way he could not loose the bombs or get himself killed if someone showed up while I was gone.
"Do you have any idea where they have their trucks?" I asked. I knew Olson had a vehicle stashed somewhere because he brought Jimmy here. Jimmy looked out of the cave mouth to the left and right. He was having trouble keeping himself focused and his eyes controlled because he kept shutting his eyes and rolling his head around. I was afraid that one or more of his broken ribs had punctured a lung. He leaned over the bombs and rested his head on his arms.
"I think the truck they brought me in is over to the left somewhere. It can't be more than 50 or 60 yards away. I was tied and blindfolded but they duck walked me in here under my own steam and we turned right into the cave," he said with his head still down. He was quiet for a moment then continued, "I feel like I've got vertigo. My inner ear must be damaged because everything around me spins when I try to look straight ahead. It's not so bad when I close my eyes."
"I'm going to pull the wagon back out of sight then try and find something to drive," I told him. I turned the cart around and pulled it back down the cave shaft until the tunnel branched off to the right. I turned the corner and pulled the cart around pointing back in the direction I just came.
"Ok partner," I said stopping the cart. "I'm going to leave Olson's Python with you with six rounds in the chambers. If you hear anyone come around the corner in front of you just start shooting at the sound. Keep your eyes closed and you may not fall off of the cart, ok?" I flipped the cylinder of the Python open and replaced the two spent rounds that Olson had fired at me with rounds from one of the speed loaders. I took Jimmy's hand and placed the big-framed revolver in it and waited. Jimmy took the gun but kept his eyes closed and his face looking down.
"Go do it," was all he said.
-49-
I ran back to the mouth of the cave and took one last look around to the left and right. I spent a few seconds to eject the clip from the Commander and to swap it with another full one. I was now back up to eight rounds in the gun. I eased out of the cave, staying against the canyon wall to my left and started moving to the south, following the wash. About a hundred yards to the south, the wall of the canyon veered to the left, heading east. Not being a Native American living on a reservation, I'm not well adept at tracking, especially in the dark. But with the moon and starlight, even I could see the deep foot and tire prints that came from around the corner of the canyon wall.
It was now almost seven in the evening and the sunlight was long gone in the bottom of the canyon where I was. I stayed glued against the wall to my left as I followed it around a 100-yard bend to the right. The wall to the left had a lot of depressions, anyone of which could have hidden a truck. I continued moving forward cranking my head left and right so I didn't get surprised by one of Olson's Apache’s that might have been hiding. If I hadn't been looking at the wall on my left side when I did I would have walked past the truck without seeing it. The depression it was parked in was about three feet wider than the truck and deeper than the truck was long. A camouflage net was hanging over the opening to the shallow alcove, effectively concealing anything behind it.
I flipped the netting off of the hooks supporting it and dragged it off to the side. There was only one truck parked in the depression and I discovered it was locked when I tried the driver's door. I thought it was out of character for an Indian to lock a truck out here. It wasn't like some gang-banger was going to rip it off. The truck was a 3/4 ton Ford four wheel drive pickup. I pulled Olson's keys out of my pocket and flipped through them feeling for the unique profile of a Ford key and bingo, there it was. I stuck the key with the round top in the door lock and it worked. I pressed the door button and pulled the door open and the dome light ca
me on.
I climbed into the driver’s seat and slipped the key into the ignition. I turned the key and nothing happened. Olson was a cop so I started looking for a cutout switch he would have had installed to allow him to disable the ignition. There was nothing obvious on the bottom of the dash board so I climbed back out and started feeling around under the seat by hand. A quick search failed to turn up anything mounted on the floor so I reached real far under the driver's seat and started checking the seat rails and the supports. It was then I found the switch fastened to the inside edge of one of the seat supports on the driver's side of the bench seat. I toggled the switch and was greeted with an annoying buzzing that sounded like a duck being strangled. I rotated the key again and the engine started.
Things began looking up. I climbed into the truck, dropped the gearshift into reverse and backed out of the depression in the canyon wall. I pulled the headlight switch out to the first position and turned the parking lights on. They were all I needed to find my way back to the cave. The trip back only took a minute and I swung out and away from the cave entrance then backed in. I pulled far enough into the cave so the truck was backed up to the first bend where Jimmy was concealed. I turned off the parking lights and got out of the truck, flipped the lockout switch under the seat to off then locked the door. You never knew who was about and I didn't want someone stealing the truck I had just stolen.
Jimmy was still conscious and setting on top of the bomb when I got back. I actually called out to him before I stepped around the corner where he was concealed
"Yo, Jimmy," I called.
"I’m still here," he replied.
I walked around the corner and saw him with his head still down on the bomb and the Colt still in his hand.
"We're almost home big guy," I said.
"Good," was the reply.
I took the revolver from Jimmy and slid it behind the waist band of my pants then grabbed the handle and leaned into the weight and the wagon started rolling behind me. It only took a few seconds to get it to the back of the truck. I unlocked and opened the passenger's door then carried Jimmy to the seat and strapped him inside. He didn't seem as heavy as the last time I carried him. He was completely out of it by then. I dropped the tailgate and pulled the wagon close. I was stumped. There was no way I was going to lift the bomb the foot or so to the bed level of the truck and push it in myself. I looked around the entrance of the cave but there wasn't anything in the way of a rope or pulley lying out in plain sight. I knew Olson had a lot of manpower but I couldn't see him having his men lifting the weapons by hand.
I ran back to the machine shop and looked around again. The inside of the room was starting to get a sweet pungent smell from Olson's body and the pool of blood going bad. A large tool locker was in one corner of the room. The tool locker was locked like any good tool locker would be. Again, no trust on Olson's part. Here they were in the middle of a guarded compound like a bunch of red Nazis and they were worried someone would steal something. I didn't have the time to waste so I pulled Olson's Python and popped the lock with a single shot that started my ears ringing again. I pulled the lid open and saw a neat arrangement of tools ranging from sockets and hacksaws to a set of micrometers. The top of the box was an insert about six inches deep with a handle that ran across the four foot length of the box. I grabbed the handle and pulled up and the top compartment lifted up and back on a set of hinges revealing a larger compartment and there was what I was looking for, two manual come-alongs. I grabbed both of them and laid them on the second bomb cart.
I grabbed the handle of the last wagon and started pulling. The cart obediently followed behind as I left the room and pulled it through the hallway back to the cave entrance. I parked the second cart beside the first. I knew I wasn't going to get the leading edge of the weapon tubes up over the edge of the tailgate. I looked at the problem for a second then it dawned on me. I raised the tailgate about half way and the cable holding the top edge of the tailgate from dropping below the bed of the truck was slack. The metal fitting at the end of the cable was slotted which allowed it to be rotated when slack and pulled off of the bolt head on each side of the tailgate. The cable was the same on both sides. I removed both of the cables and the tailgate dropped down at a forty-five degree angle, a perfect ramp to pull the bombs up.
The weapons were secured to the wagons with nylon straps. I pulled my combat knife from the sheath strapped to my right leg and cut the straps. Next I took one of the come-alongs and released the lock on the reel holding the cable. I pulled the cable full out from the reel and secured the hook and lever on the top front edge of the pickup bed. There was fifteen feet of cable with a second hook at the end. I wrapped the cable twice around the body of the weapon and snapped the hook back on the cable. I jumped into the bed of the truck and started taking the slack out of the cable by operating the long handle, spooling the cable back onto the reel. Once the cable became taunt, the effort increased but the front of the weapon slowly rose off of the cradle and began moving forward until it touched the angled tailgate of the truck. Once it came into contact with the tail gate it started moving up at an angle then stopped once the cable came level with the bed of the truck. I jumped out of the truck bed and pushed the cart away. The weapon was being held in place above the floor by the cable. It was close to being positioned to slide into the bed. I took hold of the free end of the bomb tube and levered it up level with the bed of the truck. The weight I was picking up was around 200 pounds, about the limit of my lift capability.
I knew I wasn't going to be able to push the bomb into the truck bed so I did the next best thing and rotated it sideways until I could rest my end of the tube on the bed of the truck. I then jumped back into the bed and finished levering the tube to the front end of the truck bed. I wasn't able to pick the tube up and unfasten the cable so I moved the reel end of the come-along to the left front corner of the bed and wrenched the nose of the weapon over to the driver's front corner of the bed. I took the second come-along and repeated the process, securing the next device to the passenger's front corner of the pickup bed.
I jumped out of the bed of the truck and closed the tailgate without bothering to reattach the cables that supported the tailgate when it was down. I made one last look around the cave entrance. I saw the two bodies of the guards with their MP-5 machine pistols. I figured they were not going to be using them, and not wanting anything to go to waste; I picked up both weapons and the two spare magazines each man carried. I tossed both guns and magazines into the cab of the pickup on the seat next to Jimmy. I got into the cab and checked to see that both weapons I liberated were loaded and locked with the safety on. I started the truck and turned on the headlights. At that point I didn't care who or what saw us coming or going.
-50-
I figured the way out was around the canyon to the left. I shifted the transmission into four-wheel drive and stepped on the gas. The truck lurched forward and we were off. Before we got to the left bend in the canyon wall I noticed a blue illuminated switch on the lower right of the dash and I toggled it. A second set of lights came on and the landscape in front of us lit up like the sun was suddenly turned on. Olson had a set of wide beam desert night driving lights mounted on the front grill, God bless his twisted heart. If the Space Shuttle were passing overhead in orbit it probably would have seen us.
I turned left at the bend in the canyon wall and followed the trail. The stark blue white light from the big floods in front caused sharp shadows to be formed by any irregularities in the canyon floor. Stretching out right in front of me were tracks of trucks leading away. I leaned onto the gas pedal and followed them like the white line of an interstate Highway. Just over 16 miles later we popped out of the canyon and onto the two lane paved road of state Highway 87. I could see the lights of Phoenix off to the west, probably 35 or 40 miles away. I turned left onto the road surface and floored the pedal to the metal and the big V-8 moved the Ford speedometer up to 80 without any problem
s.
About two or three miles down the road a set of headlights were coming at me. I switched off the desert driving lights and the view in front of me changed from a wide expanse to a tunnel with dark walls. A few seconds later a Ford Bronco rocketed past us and I saw its brake lights come on in my rear view mirror. I kept my foot on the floor and grabbed a look back at the road in front of me. I didn't want to run out of road at 80 miles an hour in the dark. I checked the rear view mirror again and saw a set of headlights coming up fast. I figured it had to be the Bronco coming back because there hadn't been any lights behind me when it first passed me.
I thumbed the power window button and ran the driver's window down. I then picked up the MP-5 on the seat beside me and thumbed off the safety on the side of the receiver housing. I checked the selective fire lever and switched it to full auto. With 30 rounds in the clip and a rate of fire of several 100 rounds a minute I figured I had about six seconds of firepower available. I laid the machine pistol on my lap and pulled the other one over next to me and set the safety to fire and the selective fire lever to full auto, like the one laying on my lap.